Handmade Teddy Bear Cards

Teddies make very popular subjects for cards for all occasions. They are a fun theme for birthday cards - from little kids to teenage girls to some women. They also make a fun picture for a new baby congratulations. And if your bear is holding a flower or bouquet of flowers, they would also be appropriate for mothers' day, thank yous, get wells, thinking of you, or even to say sorry. And don't rule out the men either - a bear out fishing or playing golf could be the perfect picture for your man.

Choose from different types of crafting methods, including printable, punch art, stamping, and origami.

Okay. I hear you saying that when you print it out on you computer printer that it is no longer handmade. But I beg to differ ;-) With some cards, the crafting starts after you print them out. Many of these printable pages include sections of the picture which you cut out and layer on top of the base card with thick mounting tape or silicone gel so that the resulting picture is slightly 3D. You can also decorate these cards with your own embellishments, such as ribbons, buttons, gems, string, shells, stickers ... the possibilities are endless!

For best results, I recommend using special photo paper in your inkjet printer.

I have a huge collection of punches. What can I say - I love crafting :-) But even with my big collection, I don't have all the types used in the following tutorials. But with a little bit of imagination and restyling, I think I could make these cute pictures from the selection which I do own. Have a look and see if you could make these:

Punch art sitting teddy

This cute sitting teddy bear is constructed using punch art. The pieces are punched out using a selection of punches (eg circles, ovals, butterfly, label), some of which are trimmed to make special shapes. You then piece the shapes together to make the teddy as shown in the picture on the page.

Punch art polar bear and cubs

A picture tutorial showing how to make a sweet polar bear with her two cubs. This card uses some different sized circle punches, a few ovals and a word window (a long rectangle with rounded corners).

Sitting polar bear

This polar bear wearing a scarf is made from ovals, word windows and circles.

Bear with a gift

Cute bear with a square gift - made mostly from ovals and circles. The nose has been made by punching a circle and then repunching it to get a leaf-like shape.

Punch art fishing teddy

This little fishing teddy is made from the Stampin' Up blossom petals builder punch. The teddy is very cute, but because you have to trim all but one of the pieces after you punch them out, I don't really class it as punch art. I would probably make it from circles and ovals and maybe a cloud or sun shape.

Panda Bear

This clever panda bear is made almost entirely of different sized heart punches, with an oval punch thrown in for good measure!

Punch art teddy face

The following video shows a teddy face being made with circle and oval punches and a large heart shape cut out using a special machine. You could however hand cut the heart shapes with scalloped scissors.

If you are into paper folding, you may enjoy making an origami teddy to attach to the front of a card or to dangle in a specially cut out aperture. Check out these videos with instructions on how to make some bears.

The first video is a simple bear face which even a child could make. Make sure you experiment first on some scrap paper to make sure you will get the size that you want to mount on your card.

The second video has a slightly more complicated bear which has been made out of two different sized squares. I'm sure the demonstrator makes it harder for herself by doing her folds in the air. Do your folding on a flat surface to make it easier for yourself.